Dinner Date

Posted on Mon Nov 7th, 2011 @ 5:07pm by Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: The Pak'Leth Problem
Location: Starbase 332 - Admiral's Office, Promenade
Timeline: MD03 1209hrs

With Alex still lacking any sort of secretary to filter out the visitors to his office, Nilani was able to move her way straight through Station Operations and through the doors to the enclosed chamber within, which opened almost silently, allowing her to choose when to announce herself to the Admiral. Knocking on the wall just inside the room and next to the door, she smiled as she caught the station commander's attention.

Gunning looked up from the bottom of his tea cup. He had spent the last twenty minutes researching the phenomenon of reading tea leaves to tell the future. Hokum, he had decided. Complete hokum.

The presence in the room raised a smile. "Hello, Nilani. What brings you up to the nosebleeds?"

The science officer chuckled. "I always wondered how you managed to get your uniform to change from yellow to red." As she moved fully into the room, the doors sensed that the presence holding them open had passed, and slid quietly shut behind her. "I was wondering if you wanted to join my for lunch on the promenade? The Daystrom Institute hasn't sent me their analysis of our little trip through the Tyyan Expanse yet, so I'm free for the next couple of days until they do.

"Yeah, I reckon so. The opportunity to get off this floor would be most welcome indeed." Gunning replied. "The Daystrom is really quite slow on the uptake these days, we might need to get someone to take it up with them."

"Maybe you should set Jordan on them," the Trill joked, remembering the name of the Admiral's half brother "He's still in security, isn't he?"

"He is, yeah." Alex replied. "Doubt he'd be much good though. He's in the Delta Quadrant with the Iapetus. He seems to be having a good time though, what little I've heard of him recently."

"The Delta Quadrant?" Nilani must have missed that report from Starfleet Sciences. She remembered very clearly the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant - well, Melissa did, anyway - but she would have to look up how Starfleet was now getting ships out to that part of the galaxy. "Well, anyway, there's a new Archan restaurant that just opened up on the promenade. I thought it might be nice to try out some more of the local dishes, if you're up for it?"

"Yeah, he's out that way now. I shudder to think what it must be like to be that far away from home. I thought we were cut off down here!" Alex said, following her to the turbolift. "Archan sounds good to me. It'll be nice to try something different to what they serve up on those infernal Protectorate banquets."

"I should think you would be spoilt for choice at the Admiral's table of those fancy banquets," Nilani said, in mock shock and offence before grinning, unable to keep a straight face. Ever since he'd gotten his first set of box ranks on his collar, she'd been digging him in the ribs with the odd joke and jibe - to keep him on his toes, she insisted.

Gunning laughed. "You always get the same thing. Things that Archan diplomats claim to be delicacies. They seem to forget that we have Archans living on the station and therefore we have heard of most of their dishes."

"Would you rather be served live Klingon gagh at the Admiralty meetings?" the Trill teased, as they began strolling down the promenade towards the new restaurant. "Or perhaps some juicy wriggling tube grubs?" He last comment caught a few looks from those passers by who weren't all that familiar with the more... unusual eating preferences of some of the Galaxy's species.

"All right, you might have a point there, Prax." He replied, squirming at the thought of Ferengi tube grubs.

Nilani chuckled. "I suppose I won't be taking you to the Ferengi restaurant on the station at any time soon then," she said, a grin plastered all over her face as they turned into the Archan establishment they'd been heading towards. "Come on, I'll pay."

-----------------
Rear Admiral Alexander Gunning
Commanding Officer

&

Lt. Commander Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer
Starbase 332